Beers of the World Live resounding success for second time

Beers of the World Live, the UK’s most stylish beer sampling event hosted by Beers of the World magazine, has proved a resounding success for the second year running.

The annual three day event, which this year took place on Friday 12th, Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th of June, is situated alongside the BBC Summer Festival at the NEC in Birmingham. The event has now firmly established itself at the heart of the beer events calendar, and visitors were up by more than 60 per cent from last year’s inaugural event.

The Beers of the World Live stage was bursting with excitement as TV favourites ‘The Hairy Bikers’ whisked visitors “around the world with a crate of beer.” Dave Myers and Si King matched beer with a host of different foods from smoked salmon to pickled eggs, spicing up their global knowledge of cookery with some customary warm-hearted humour.

Visitors also got the chance to be led in a tutored tasting by some of the most knowledgeable people in the industry. Roger Protz, leading beer journalist and editor of the Good Beer Guide, took listeners on a liquid tour of the length and breadth of England, its breweries and beers while Head Brewer at Sharps, Stuart Howe, guided the mesmerised audience through his latest creations.

New for this year was the specially selected beer and food pairings; visitors paid £1 for a trio of different taste combinations. The savoury tray offered such matches as Dragon Stout with chorizo sausage, and the sweet tray presented Meantime Chocolate with raspberries among others. These were designed to showcase beer’s versatility when it comes to food pairing.

Companies at the show included Worthington’s White Shield, Budweiser Budvar and H2O Lager with Gringo, Three Lions and Arctic Ice Lager. 357 beers that were entered into the World Beer Awards 2009 were also available. The prestigious second round of judging took place at the show on the Friday, as brewers from around the country came together to taste and score. The full results will be announced at a gala lunch on 30th July and published in issue 25 of Beers of the World magazine on 31st July.